Glens Falls, NY – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today visited the World Awareness Children’s Museum and stood with arts advocates and community leaders to call on the Senate to reject President Trump’s budget proposal to zero out funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.
“The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities allow families and community organizations to help give our children the chance to experience and learn about art, music, dance, language, and literature,” said Senator Gillibrand. “If these programs are taken away, it would particularly hurt communities and towns like those throughout the Capital Region. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities give local organizations more resources to teach students on field trips, and they fund educational programming on PBS beloved by children and their families, they give veterans a new lens to understand their experiences and reintegrate into their communities. We should never allow these programs to be cut, and I will continue to do everything in my power to stand up for communities that don’t have a lot of resources and rely on these programs.”
“I am very appreciative of Senator Gillibrand’s support of the Endowments. This funding supports arts organizations which in turn support local communities by offering strong, engaging programming. The World Awareness Children’s Museum has received support from the NEH to connect with local international communities and present authentic programming. These opportunities have become available through Endowment support and we want to continue offering such strong programming to children and families in this area,” said Sheileen Landrey, Director of Programming World Awareness Children’s Museum.
The NEA and NEH have an annual budget of $148 million each. President Trump’s recently released budget proposes to zero out funding for both of these institutions. In 2016, New York institutions were awarded 538 grants from the NEA, totaling more than $17 million. New York received 111 grants from the NEH the same year, totaling more than $12.6 million.